The present invention relates to a protective casing for accommodating an end connecting part of a bundle of wires.
In case that a plurality of wires has been connected to each other by joining a bundle of conductive ends of the wires, thereafter, the end connecting part of the wires generally accommodated in a protective casing made of insulating material. In a prior art, there are known a L-shaped protective casing of fixture-type, which is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-24266 and a protective casing of strain-relief type.
The former casing consists of a box-type casing body provided with an opened upper part and an opened side part thereof, which has a L-shaped wire end storage part therein, and a lid pivotably connected with a margin of the casing body for closing the opened upper part thereof. The lid is provided on lateral sides thereof with locking parts which are to be engaged with engagement parts formed on the casing body when it is closed by the lid.
When the end connecting part of the wires is accommodated in the above mentioned casing, the end connecting part of some rigidity are bent so as to accord with the profile of the wire end storage part. Under such a accommodating condition, due to resistance from the bent end connecting part, the protective casing can be maintained to be integral with the ends of the wires in spite of tensile strength applied thereon.
In the former protective casing, however, since the end connecting part are accommodated in the casing by bending the end connecting part of some rigidity forcibly, such an accommodating operation is apt to be so difficult for an operator and furthermore, joined surfaces of the ends are easy to be apart from each other because of increased burden on the joined surfaces.
In the latter casing of strain-relief type, under condition that each wire is arranged in a row transversely and flatly, ends of the conductive parts of the wires are bundled and joined to each other. As well as the former casing, the casing consists of a casing body and a lid for closing the body. The lid is also provided on both lateral sides thereof with locking parts for locking on the lid in a condition that it closes the upper side of the casing body. Inside the casing body, a wire end storage part is provided having a recess on a bottom wall thereof. On the other hand, the lid is provided on an internal surface thereof facing the bottom wall with a projection which is inserted into the recess in case of closing the lid.
When the end connecting part of the wires are accommodated in the protective casing and then it is closed by the lid, the wires are forcibly curved or wound since the projection is engaged into the recess. Consequently, due to resistance of this curved or wound portion of the wires, the protective casing can be maintained to be integral with the ends of the wires in opposition to tensile strength applied thereon.
In the latter protective casing, however, since it has to contain the wires arranged in the row transversely, there is a drawback of increasing the width of the casing. In addition, in case of accommodating the wires of different sizes, a clearance between the projection and the recess has to be changed corresponding to the sizes of the wires. Therefore, in practical, there is raised a problem that a variety of casings must be prepared for every sizes of the wires.